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On the Brink of Extinction: The Story of the California Condor



The California condor is one of the most magnificent feats when it comes to the avian world in North America. This large bird has wingspan of about 9 feet and can weigh up to 20 – 25 pounds. This particular condor can be found throughout the western United States, but mainly in California, Arizona and in southern Utah. Their habitats include isolated rocky cliffs and crevices. The kicker with this species is that they have been protected by federal law as an endangered species since 1967. The species was almost lost as a whole, if it were not until the 1980s where conservation efforts lead to people finding the remaining twenty or so wild condors and bringing them back into captivity. As of 1987, there were no wild California condors in the wild. They were all brought into captivity and were initiated into breeding programs with the ultimate goal of reintroducing the species back into the wild.
The California condor species inevitably got to this point because of human centered activities. The initial problem was the birds were found to have been declining from lead poisoning. The carcasses or gut sacks left over from hunting were riddled with lead from the ammunition used and were later ingested by the birds due to their scavenging nature of finding food. The condor was also poisoned by antifreeze and crude oil as well as other environmental pollutants that come with advancing societies. There has even been studies that the infamous use of the pesticide, DDT, which possibly lead to the eggs of the condor not hatching. The California condor was also troubled with flying into electrical power cords and other structures that may have been in their line of flight.

 Even though anthropocentric problems were advancing the decline of the condor, conservation efforts were utilized to stop the decline and the issues that surrounded the decline in the first place. Condor breeding centers were established at the World Center for Birds of Prey in Boise, Idaho and San Diego Wild Animal Park as well as at other zoos and animal parks in the western United States. Because the California condor species was such a bug story for quite some time, there has even been a push in states such as California to use non-lead ammunition for hunting because of its harsh side effects to others animals involved. Aside from the promotion of environmentally safe ammunition, the use of the breeding centers saw a steady increase in the species population. So much in fact that birds were being reintroduced back into the wild as early 1990! There were more than 169 condors successfully released in California, Arizona and Mexico through 2009. Even with these advances to helping the condors; the species is still labeled as critically endangered. But on has to look as this issue as half full because there were reported about 450 birds in captivity and in the wild. This is great accomplishment, seeing how the population numbers were as low as about 20 thirty years prior.



Works Cited
California Condor. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://birdsna.org/SpeciesAccount/bna/species/calcon/introduction
California Condor. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.wildlife.ca.gov/Conservation/Birds/California-Condor
Fund, T. P. (n.d.). California Condors: The Canary in the Coal Mine. Retrieved from https://www.peregrinefund.org/projects/california-condor

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